Red Skelton
Richard "Red" Bernard Skelton (born July 18, 1913 in Vincennes , Indiana , † September 17, 1997 in Rancho Mirage , California ) was an American comedian , actor and singer .
Life
His father Joe, who died two months before Red was born, was a clown at Circus Hagenbeck-Wallace . At the age of ten he got his first experience with the stage through the actor Ed Wynn . This has not let go of him since then. Before he was 16, he was a clown in the same circus as his father. He sang, acted or did stand-up comedy in various shows and on a theater ship. In later years, Skelton wrote the poem The Circus ( The Circus ) in memory of his father.
It wasn't until 1938 that he came to film . He quickly became a crowd favorite with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . With the help of the art of pantomime and slapstick , which he mastered virtuously, he embodied the "little man" type. The audience discovered their longings and dreams in him. He had his greatest box office successes in the 1940s and early 1950s.
Red Skelton died of pneumonia on September 17, 1997 at home in Rancho Mirage, California . The grave is located in the Great Mausoleum of Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale .
Filmography (selection)
- 1940: Flight Command
- 1941: Dr. Kildare: In Court (The People vs. Dr. Kildare)
- 1941: Lady Be Good
- 1941: Dr. Kildare: The Wedding Day (Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day)
- 1942: Hustle and bustle in Panama
- 1942: Ghost hunt in Dixie
- 1942: Gangster hunt in Brooklyn
- 1944: Venus bathing
- 1945: Broadway Melody 1950 (Ziegfeld Follies)
- 1947: Oops, here comes Merton!
- 1948: The super spy
- 1949: Neptune's Daughter (Neptune's Daughter)
- 1950: Three little words ( Three Little Words )
- 1950: The bad luck raven
- 1950: Venus falls in love
- 1951: Texas Mardi Gras
- 1951: step on the gas, Joe!
- 1952: Men make fashion
- 1954: One night with Susanne (Susan Slept Here)
- 1956: Around the world in 80 days
- 1960: Frankie and his cronies
- 1965: The daring men in their flying boxes
Social commitment and memberships
Red Skelton had been a member of the Freemasonry Association since September 20, 1939 , his lodge was Vincennes Lodge No. 1 , in Indiana . He was also an active Shriner as well as a patron and founder of Shriners' Crippled Children’s Hospital and the Red Skelton Foundation .
literature
- Arthur Marx, Red Skelton, an unauthorized biography , EPDutton Verlag, New York 1979, ISBN 0-525-18953-X
Web links
- Red Skelton in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Biography
Individual evidence
- ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Red Skelton
- ↑ Red Skelton, active Freemason and Shriner website of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia on Yukon. Retrieved April 3, 2011
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Skelton, Red |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Skelton, Richard Bernard (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American actor and comedian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 18, 1913 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Vincennes , Indiana |
| DATE OF DEATH | 17th September 1997 |
| Place of death | Rancho Mirage , California |